Les Mamelles de Tiresias (The Breasts of Tiresias)

What do breasts, balloons and baritones have in common?
This April, Lyric Opera of Melbourne will launch its 2018 season with Les Mamelles de Tiresias (The Breasts of Tiresias), in what's set to be the wackiest opera you've ever seen! Composer Francis Poulenc's surrealist comedy sees one woman's rebellion explode gender norms, biological constraints and even her own breasts.

Originally composed in the 1940s and later arranged by English composer Benjamin Britten, Lyric's Mamelles will be re-imagined in the 'greed is good' era of the early 1980s - glam fashion included - asking what happens when one housewife puts on the pants to leave childbirth to her husband.

The one act, one-hour show opens as the dissatisfied and ambitious Therese frees herself of her breasts - which float away as two balloons - before departing to take over the world. Her emasculated husband is then forced to take over the childbirth, notching up a remarkable 40,000 babies in just one day!

Director Cathy Hunt, a graduate of Lyric's Opera Director's Workshop, makes her operatic debut with this riotous opera which will be sung in English.

This is opera up close, accessible and affordable. Enjoy an hour of singing, surrealism and shoulder pads!